Tomb of the Ten-Tails
by DarkAvenger001
Summary: While traveling through the mysterious island in the Dragon's Triangle, Lara Croft stumbles upon a cave that holds a power not seen in the world for many years. When this power turns out to be the son of a hero that not even she knew, will she be willing to trust this strange man claiming to be a shinobi? Does she have a choice?
1. Chapter 1

"This is speaking in English."

"This is speaking in another language that will be explained in this chapter"

**A/N: So, this past Christmas I got the reboot Tomb Raider game I played through it and this story came to me about halfway through the coastal forest section. My first thought when I saw no one did this yet was how has no one thought up this story? So, here it is!**

**Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.**

Chapter 1:

Raiding the Tomb

An army of shinobi stood against a monster that had been present in the world only twice and each time always resulted in the death of many. This monster was the Ten-Tails, or the Juubi. The massive monster was preparing to wipe out the forces in a massive attack.

Two people were arguing, one was an older man with blonde hair and whisker-like marks on his face and the other was a younger eighteen-year-old with a darker shade of blonde hair and pale blue eyes.

"Otou-san, you have to seal it inside me! We don't have any choice!" the younger man said.

"There has to be some other way! We'll find a way! I promise!" the elder man said.

"There is no other way. It's about to destroy us! Please!" tears were streaming down the younger man's face.

"You don't understand, if we do this, then we'll have to seal you away too! Otherwise, it'll just burst out of you. I have no idea how long you'll need to be sealed in order for your body to adapt to the Juubi's power! You could never be able to come out of it!"

The younger man looked at his father with determination, "So be it."

"Very well," the father said before going through a rapid succession of hand signs before holding his hand out at the younger man, "Sealing Arts: Demonic Sealing Jutsu!" The jutsu sent a beam into the younger man before many smaller ones shot out of him to wrap around the Juubi before pulling it towards the younger man and dragging it into his body.

The man was then gripped by agony, his body feeling like it was being torn apart from the inside out.

"Otou-san, hurry! It's, urgh, trying to dig it's way back out!"

"Don't worry. I've got this," the elder man said, confident in his abilities, but still wishing he wouldn't have to sacrifice his son. He made another series of hand signs before shouting, "Sealing Arts: Demon Statue Seal!"

A few moments after that, runes typically seen in sealing jutsu began to snake all over the younger man's body before it began to slowly turn to stone. Just before his mouth was petrified, the man said, "Bye, Otou-san, I love you and tell Kaa-chan that I love her too."

The elder man nodded, "I will and I love you too. I'm sorry about all of this. You would have made one awesome Hokage."

The last thing the younger man could do before the last of his face petrified was smile with true happiness. Once his body was completely turned to stone, a massive demonic looking statue started forming around him until a stone statue of the Juubi, smaller than the real one, was formed. With the jutsu complete, the elder man had tears in his eyes as he knew what he had to do. Move the statue to a safe place, tell his wife and friends what had happened, and hunt down the bitch that was responsible for all of this.

**Many millennia later**

Lara Croft was having a bad day or rather a bad couple of days. She and the rest of the passengers and crew of the _Endurance_ had journeyed into the Dragon's Triangle in search of the lost kingdom of Yamatai. Instead of the safe landing that they'd hoped for, the storms that made the area infamous tore the ship in half and stranded the survivors on this island. Lara herself had been separated from the rest of the survivors, knocked unconscious, and taken captive in some kind of sacrificial altar that was made in a cave. After escaping the collapsing cave and finally finding her friend Sam, who was in the company of a past shipwreck survivor, Lara had passed out from the injuries, only to wake up to find both of them gone. She'd met the rest of her friends and crewmates a few minutes later and they'd all decided to split up. Lara would travel with Dr. Whitman, who was one of the main reasons they could even do this expedition and the head archaeologist, in order to find Roth, Lara's friend and teacher. The rest of them would try and find Sam and this Mathias person. Whitman had gone ahead while Lara rested a bit more from her injuries and soreness at the base camp Sam had made in what appeared to be some ruins in the middle of the coastal forest.

She moved through the forest, an arrow drawn as she kept watch for any more wolves that had been hounding her. She was also looking for more salvage that she could hopefully use to modify her bow. She used her bow to take down more of the creepy talismans that litter the area. Seriously, what is it with these inhabitants and the disturbing decorations? As she was making her way towards where Whitman told her over the radio that she had that he was waiting, she spotted an opening in the cliff wall. There were some markings on the on the wall that looked to Lara as faded Japanese letters. It was a little difficult for her to make out, but she managed to make out four words, "Tomb," though that might have been "vault," but she couldn't be certain as the kanji was pretty faded, "Ten-tails," and "Juubi." What any of these words had to do with each other, Lara had no idea, but her inner archaeologist was making her curious about what might be inside.

She pulled the radio from her backpack to contact Whitman, "Dr. Whitman, I'm going to explore a cave, so I might be out of contact for a while."

"Lara, we don't have time for these little detours. You have to see what I've found!" Whitman said before adding, as if it were an afterthought, "Oh, and we need to still find Roth."

"Relax, doctor, it should only take a few minutes and I'll be right back out." Lara said as she began to walk into the darkness.

She lit her torch with a fire pot on one of the walls and started making her way through the tunnel. She could tell that the tunnel was carved, but had collapsed enough to lose its smooth surface. She moved slowly just in case there were any pitfalls in the darkness, which there luckily were not. When she came out of the tunnel, the archaeologist found herself in a massive open chamber. The main landmark of the room was a massive statue in the middle of the room. She'd never seen such a demon in all of the legends that she'd studied. Despite the obvious age of the statue, the edges weren't worn down by time, wind, or water and the only sign of its age was the moss that had grown over it. The creature had humanoid arms and legs along with what appeared to be a mouth of sharp teeth and a single eye with what looked like concentric circles. The key details of the statue that drew Lara's attention were the ten tentacle-like tails and the single eye.

"Maybe this was affected by the Greek myths of Cyclopes through traders and traveling scholars or maybe the source of those myths," Lara muttered outloud before realizing that she needed to continue her investigations, hopefully finding some things that she could use.

Beneath the statue, there was a deep pool and, from what the British citizen could tell, there wasn't another way out. Lara was a little disappointed and was about to leave when she noticed some images on the wall. They were a bit faded, but Lara could make them out enough to realize they were telling a story. A demon, the same one as the statue, was faced off against a warrior, who, in the next panel, imprisoned the demon, while banishing a shadow that stood behind the demon. The third image showed the shadow hiding away while the warrior prepared for its return. Lara had never heard of this legend, she made a mental note to research it when she got off the island.

She then noticed a pedestal on a platform in front of the large statue and approached it. The words were a little worn down and in a dialect of Japanese that she didn't recognize, but it was close enough to the modern version that she could make out enough of it.

The words said, "Release the hero when the Shadow of Fire commands it. The treasure of power lies within the stone, which must be broken to free it."

"'Treasure of power?' What does that mean? 'Lies within the stone?' Did the sculptor seal something in the statue?" she wondered.

She looked up to see what appeared to be a battering ram tipped with a metal point and covered with strange runes. While she was against the idea of destroying what was likely an extremely historical artifact, just on principal as an archaeologist, something told her that she should do what she was thinking, that she should destroy the statue. Her instincts told her what to do, so she began to climb up the ledges until she was on the same level as the ram. The rope holding it in place was tied to a beam wrapped in cloth. She used her torch to set fire to the cloth, which spread to the rope. The ram smashed into the statue, causing it to crumble to pieces.

What really shocked Lara was that what appeared to be a man tumbled out of it and fell into the pool.

"Damnit!" Lara cried as she jumped off the ledge to dive into the pool. She frantically swam towards the man, who was unconscious and sinking fast. She wrapped her arms around his waist to pull him to the surface. Once she broke the surface, she dragged the unconscious man to the ground. She checked the man's pulse and couldn't find it. She started giving him CPR and, after the second round of breaths, the man started coughing up water, so Lara helped him onto his side to ensure the water came out easily.

"Are you alright?" Lara asked.

"What? What did you say?" the man asked, sitting up and wiping the water from his face.

When the man spoke, Lara was surprised when he used words of the same dialect as the written words on the cave entrance as they appeared to be quite ancient and this man didn't appear to be older than twenty. She decided to try her luck at trying to speak to him, hoping that her knowledge of the language was close enough to his that he would understand her.

"I asked if you are alright," Lara said.

"Yes, I'm…fine," the man said, his sudden difficulty in creating a complete sentence came about due to the same reason as the slight blush on his face, he looked up for the first time to see his rescuer for the first time, "Wow, you're beautiful," he said, not even fully realizing what he said.

Lara blushed at the compliment. True, it wasn't the first time someone complimented her looks, even by men as handsome as the one before her, but most of them were either men trying to pick her up in clubs that Sam dragged her to or obnoxious colleagues that wanted to get into her pants. This one, however, seemed more…sincere. The man had dark blonde hair, wore a dark green flak vest with a hooded trench coat over it with images of falling leaves decorating it.

"Thank you," she said, smiling, "What's your name, anyway?"

"Uzumaki-Namikaze Minato, after my grandfather the fourth Hokage. What's your name, Miss?" Minato asked.

"Lara Croft," she replied with a smile.

"Nice to meet you, Croft-chan," Minato said, giving a big smile.

Lara giggled slightly, "Croft is my family name and Lara is my given name."

"You put your family name second? Weird." Minato teased, "So, where am I anyway?"

"You're on an unchartered island in the Dragon's Triangle."

Minato looked at her in confusion, "Where's that?"

"About 300 miles from the coast of Japan." Minato's blank expression didn't change, telling Lara that he had no idea where that was. "Where are you from? Maybe I could give you an idea if I use your home as a base location."

"I'm from Konohagakure in the Elemental Nations." Minato explained.

"I've never heard of those places, but I don't exactly have access to the sources of information on this island," Lara said, now even more curious about the strange man before her.

"Really? How's that possible? They're pretty famous," Minato said, curious as to Lara's ignorance.

"What were you doing in that statue anyway?" Lara asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

"My father put me in there."

"What? Why?" Lara asked. She couldn't imagine a possible reason a father would seal his son into a statue, even through whatever means he used to seal Minato away.

"He sealed the Juubi inside my body, but a human body can't handle that amount of power, so he had to seal me away too in order to give my body time enough to adapt to it. Even my Otou-san's sealing jutsu weren't able to deal with that flaw, though at least he made it easy for someone to release me from the statue."

"Sealing jutsu? What's that?"

"A type of jutsu that uses seals. Obviously," Minato explained, confused as to how Lara doesn't know something so basic.

"But what is a jutsu?" Lara asked. She was curious as to what this thing called a 'jutsu' could have the ability to seal someone in stone.

"How could you not know that? Everyone knows that!"

"I don't and I've never heard of anyone that uses something with that name, so I'm thinking that perhaps the knowledge was lost during the time you were sealed away," Lara said, "Do you have any idea how long you were locked away?"

Minato shrugged, "I don't know, a couple years I guess?"

"Well, considering how much information that you know and no one I know does, I think it was a bit longer than that. How long I haven't got a clue, but judging from the apparent age of the room and the age of some of the shipwrecks I saw, I'd say ships have been coming here for hundreds of years and, if I had to guess, the statue holding you was even older."

That information hit Minato like a ton of bricks. It crushed his spirit to think that everyone he ever knew was likely long dead.

Lara placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder, "I'm sorry, Minato. It might just be that your home is just unknown to everyone else. There are still many places in the world that are still uncharted, even here in the Dragon's Triangle. It's possible that I just don't know, so please don't lose hope."

"You're right, Lara-chan. Otou-san always taught me that no matter how bleak and dark the situation might be, there's always hope. I refuse to let this break me!" Minato said with fire in his eyes.

Lara smiled at his inner fire, "I'm glad to hear that Minato. I'm glad you're feeling better."

"So, Lara-chan, why can't you leave this island?"

Lara then remembered what she'd been doing before her intellectual curiosity got the better of her, so she started explaining everything from why she and her friends came to the Dragon's Triangle to what had happened after the shipwreck. She explained the strange documents she'd found, describing beings called 'oni' and how the storms surrounding the island prevented anyone from leaving, that made the archaeologist in her even more curious as to the secrets of the island, though she was determined to ensure her friends were safe first and foremost. When she explained that she was looking for a kingdom that was ruled by the so-called Sun Queen Himiko, something prodded against the back of Minato's memory, though he didn't know what it could be. He realized that his time sealed away, clearly affected his memory, so parts of it were missing. Not wanting to worry the girl, Minato decided not to mention it, though he did say that Yamatai and the title 'Sun Queen' meant nothing to him.

When Lara finished her story, Minato had a determined look on his face, "I'd like to help you Lara-chan. I might have been asleep for a while, but I'll still be a big help to ya!"

"Thanks, Minato. I appreciate that. We should get going. Dr. Whitman is waiting for me to return."

"Lead the way, Lara-chan," Minato said, gesturing for her to do so.

When she stood up, she hissed in pain and grasped her wounded side, where a piece of rhubarb had pierced her body.

"Lara-chan, you're wounded!" Minato said, with worry.

"I'm fine, Minato, don't worry," she reassured.

"Let me see," Minato said.

"Really, I'm fine."

" .See," he insisted. Lara sighed and gently lifted the side of her tank top up, the cloth sticking to the blood of the injury. He looked at it carefully before saying, "It's not that bad. I should be able to heal that up pretty easily," before putting his hands over the wound. His hands started to glow a green light. Lara tried to question what he was doing, but he shushed her and continued to do whatever it was that he was doing. When he was finished, he took his hands away from her to reveal flawless, unblemished skin.

"W-what? Minato, h-how did you…?" Lara couldn't find the words for her shock at what just happened.

Minato shrugged, "A simple healing jutsu. I'm not as good as my mom, Auntie Sakura, or Grandma Tsunade, but I'm a decent field medic. Now, we should go and meet with your friends."

Lara snapped out of her surprise stupor and nodded. She had many more questions to ask him, but felt they would have to wait until later as she reentered the tunnel that she came through. Minato followed closely behind with Lara guiding them through the dark tunnel until they were out in the dim sunlight of the forest. When Lara explained that they were going to the large structure that could just be made out between the trees and began to walk towards it, Minato grabbed her arm to stop her. When she looked at her new companion questioningly, he pulled out a pair of kunai. That got Lara's attention and she stopped to listen and she heard growl, a sound she recognized to mean wolves. She pulled her bow out and nocked an arrow. Wolves burst out of the brush and Lara fired one of her arrows, embedding it in the eye of one of the canines. Minato threw a barrage of his kunai, killing the other six wolves with one knife each.

"Wow, you're quite skilled, Minato," Lara said as Minato pulled the blades from the dead wolves.

"Any shinobi worth the title knows how to make those hits," Minato said.

"Shinobi? You're a ninja?" Lara asked.

"Yep, Konohagakure is a shinobi village and I was trained by my Otou-san, the sixth Hokage to one day be the leader, just like him."

"This Hokage, is that the leader of your village?"

Minato nodded, "He's also the strongest shinobi in the village. The one everyone respects more than anything else."

Lara nodded, grateful for this new information, before leading him to where Dr. Whitman was waiting in front of a massive gate covered in images.

"Dr. Whitman!" Lara called as she got closer.

The doctor didn't even look away from the images on the door. "Lara, glad you finally got here. You have to see this. It appears to be some kind of deity, possibly an example of sun-worship."

Lara walked up to the gate right next to the doctor and touched the white paint of the images to pull her fingers away, now white with the paint.

"It's still wet. It was made recently," she said.

"Yes, likely by the inhabitants of this island," Whitman said.

"Who are they, doctor?"

"Likely survivors, just like us from the other ships that litter the beach," he said before finally turning around and seeing Minato for the first time, "Lara, who's that?"

"Doctor meet Uzumaki-Namikaze Minato. I found him inside that cave I explored," Lara said, while Minato just stared at the two, not understanding a single word they were saying.

"He was squatting in a cave?" Whitman said, his voice showing disgust at the concept.

"Actually…this is going to sound a bit strange, but he was actually sealed inside of an old statue."

"Truly?"

"Yes, he was sealed inside an old stone statue of a demon that I haven't seen in any of the literature. If what he says is true and accurate, he's from a culture that I've never even heard mentioned in any of the records that I've studied."

"Really?" Whitman said, his full attention now on Minato. He could smell as big a story with the blonde as with the search for Yamatai. "Hello there, I'm Doctor James Whitman, famed archaeologist. Pleased to make your acquaintance," he said, holding his hand out for Minato to shake it, which he did, though Minato looked at him with suspicion.

"Doctor, he only speaks a form of Japanese. He doesn't understand what you're saying," Lara said.

"Ah, well, I think I can speak enough of it to communicate," the doctor said, mentally going through his Japanese phrases.

"Doctor, I can communicate with him, besides we need to get past this door, which is more important right now," Lara said, trying to save the doctor from embarrassment and, quite frankly, it was obvious that Lara didn't like the doctor for whatever reason.

"Ah, yes, of course," the doctor said, sounding a little annoyed being unable to question the blonde.

Lara moved closer to the door before noticing wheels on either side of it and moved to the left one.

"Shit, the handle's missing," Lara muttered before she looked at her axe and stuck the handle into the hole of the missing handle. She and Whitman started to turn, but feeling the handle was about to break, Lara stopped and pulled it out. "Damn, it's not strong enough."

"I'm sure there are some things that you might be able to use to strengthen it," Whitman said.

Lara went over to a nearby fire and sat down on a log before she began to use the salvage that she'd found in order to do just that. Minato sat next to her, watching her work.

"You don't like Dr. Whitman, do you?" Lara asked, not looking up from her work.

"No," Minato said.

"You don't even know him. Why the quick judgment? Shouldn't you give him at least a chance?"

"You see, Lara-chan, to be a ninja, you have to have very good instincts, especially with people, so that you can anticipate threats. Right from the start, I could tell the sort of person Whitman-san is and it's not a good one. He cares more for himself than anyone else and he will sell us out the instant he feels that doing so will save his own skin."

"You're wrong. He's not perfect, but he'd never do something like that," she said, not willing to believe the man she respected as an archaeologist would do something like that without hard evidence.

"I'm sorry, Lara-chan, but you're wrong and I fear what will happen when you realize it." Minato said morbidly.

She finished it and went back to the gate, where Whitman was still examining the images.

"Ready, Lara? Shall we give it a go, then?" he asked as he prepared to turn the right wheel.

"Let's do this, doctor," she said as she put the axe back into the wheel. This time when they turned it, the door started moving and it made it all the way to the top. The three hurried through as the gate slowly began to close again.

The trio found themselves on a path with a long flight of steps. Whitman, still focused on the historical findings, spoke to Lara.

"The images on the door, judging from their age, they could be the Sun Queen," he said.

"Himiko? Are you sure you're not channeling Sam, Dr. Whitman?" Lara joked.

"Well, there's no doubt Himiko had power, some say shamanistic, elemental!" Whitman said excitedly.

"A woman wields that much power and sooner or later it gets called witchcraft," Lara said, while in the back of her mind thinking on the ninja of the trio's healing ability and wondering what else he could do. She felt it best not to ask because he seemed annoyed at her not agreeing with him about the doctor, but she figured he'd get over it. She glanced back at him to see he had a serious expression and was seemingly keeping an eye on the shadows.

"We shouldn't discount anything," Whitman said, "Even what may seem to us irrational. We still have much to learn about the world."

Lara sighed, "You sound like my father."

"It could be one hell of a story, Lara," Whitman said, sounding excited.

"Not if we don't live to tell it," she replied, getting nervous about not being able to see where exactly they were going despite having torches to light their way due to rocks and trees blocking an already windy path.

They came to a clearing where there was an altar with a statue of a woman being the centerpiece.

"Incredible, it **is** Himiko!" Whitman said, sounding like a child in a toy store.

"But look," Lara said, approaching it, "The bowls, the candles, why's she still being worshipped?"

"This island it must've once been part of Yamatai. You were right, Lara!" Whitman said.

Lara felt the excitement getting to her now, "The Lost Kingdom!"

"It's like finding Atlantis," Whitman agreed.

"But this is real, Dr. Whitman. We're not standing on a myth," she said with pride.

"Tell me can your friend tell us anything? You said that he was from some ancient culture, perhaps he knows something."

Lara looked at Minato, who was watching them with a confused and slightly suspicious expression, "I'm afraid not, doctor. That was one of the first things I asked him and he'd never heard of the Lost Kingdom."

"Shame, but still we're standing on a gold mine!" Whitman said, just before the sounds of twigs snapping and a deep Russian voice was heard. Whitman pulled his pistol out and Minato pulled out a pair of kunai.

"Come quickly, your friends are hurt!" the large Russian said.

Lara didn't believe them for a second, "Yes, probably by them," she whispered to Whitman, remembering the crazy man from the cave and the mutilated corpses she saw in the tunnels she'd passed through before meeting Minato.

"Stay back!" the doctor warned the strange men.

"They can't be trusted!" Lara whispered. Minato was staying next to them, ready to attack if they got to close. One of the men took the high ground, preparing to attack with a bow, which everyone noticed, "You still have a gun!" she said, as she could feel the doctor getting more and more worried. The man that had spoken still had his hands up to show he was unarmed, though he didn't seem worried in the least.

Whitman looked back at Lara and Minato for a second before saying, "I don't want any trouble," and taking his finger off the trigger and holding his hands up, much to Lara's horror and Minato's anger. "We'll come, but I insist that afterwards you take us to whoever's in charge."

"What are you doing!?" Lara asked Whitman as he put the gun on the ground and told her to be quiet.

Lara prepared her bow to attack, but someone hit her from behind, knocking her to the ground. She tried to fight the man tying her arms behind her and called for Minato, who was being advanced on by two others. Their eyes met and Minato gave her a look that said "I told you so." When the moment passed, a flash of light occurred and Minato was just gone. Lara realized then that he'd been right the whole time, he'd given her a chance and she threw it back, choosing to trust the doctor who even her closest friend warned about. As a result, she was now on her own.

**A/N: And that's chapter 1! Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Reviews:**

**gunslayer12:**

**Trust me, I've already considered that problem quite extensively. While the Solarii won't be much of a threat to him, but let's face it they couldn't take on Lara when she was alone and now she has someone from the Elemental nations fighting with her.**

**coduss:**

**Glad you liked it, but are you so sure that's what happened? Look underneath the underneath, dude.**

**karthik9:**

**Happy to hear that you liked it.**

**OSR fanatic:**

**Hope you continue to like my story.**

**S.R.457:**

**Thanks.**

**raddaraddaradda2:**

**Glad to hear it.**

**Crazykiller2606:**

**Hope that continues.**

**A/N: Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.**

"This is speaking in English."

"This is Japanese."

Chapter 2:

The Burning of the Temple

Run. That's the thought that was foremost in Lara's mind. Run. After Whitman surrendered and Lara was taken captive, she was dragged to a nearby temple, where there were other survivors, crewmen of the Endurance, being guarded by men with guns. When they made a break for it, the men with guns, which she guessed, from the different documents she'd found, were called the Solarii, killed them and while they were distracted, she ran as fast as she could, her arms still tied behind her back. Everything was in flames, she could hear the men executing other crewmen, but Lara was focused on staying in the shadows, trying to keep from being seen. The last thing she wanted was to find herself back in the clutches of that Russian man. The way he was leering at her terrified her.

She eventually came to a destroyed building. With the only other two paths blocked, she squeezed between two halves of the collapsed building, hoping to find a way through or at least a place to hide. She froze when she saw a flashlight pass over where she was hiding, fearing that her movement might give away her position. She mentally wished that Minato would come back and save her. A chill ran through her when she heard the man from before yelling something in Russian, his footsteps getting closer.

"No one escapes," he said, passing by where Lara was hiding, her bow still over his shoulder, and, for a moment, she thought she was safe. That didn't last long as he came back and pointed a gun right at Lara, repeating, "No one escapes." He gestured for her to come out of her hiding spot.

She came out, a defeated expression on her face. As soon as she was out, she tried to make another run for it, hoping to push past the man, but he grabbed her arm and pushed her back against a wooden beam. He pressed himself against her, running his hand from her shoulder down her side. Lara drove her knee into his gut, trying to get away while he was stunned, but he managed to grab her still bound wrists and threw her back against the wood. He was obviously losing his patience because his grabs became more frantic and he started attacking her neck with his mouth, licking and kissing it. Lara felt revulsion, disgust, and panic at the fact that she knew he was going to rape her if she didn't do something. When this realization reached her mind, her body seemed to move on its own and bit off his ear, making him yell in pain. This time she went on the offensive tackling her would-be rapist to the ground, the ropes that had been binding her arms finally snapping. She scrambled after the dropped pistol with the man chasing after her. She grabbed the gun, spinning to land on her back, so she could aim the gun at her attacker. He reached her before she could aim it at him, resulting in a wrestling match for the gun. Suddenly, the gun went off and he received a hole in the head.

She pushed his literal dead weight off of her, not quite accepting that she'd actually just killed someone.

"She just killed Vladimir!" a voice shouted, making Lara snap out of her shock to look up and see three of the Solarii aim weapons at her, one bow, a gun, and a pair of axes, and advance at her.

She leapt at the dead body, trying to pull her bow free so she could have something to defend herself with, but it was too wedged under the dead man. She couldn't get it free. Just before the three men could attack her, the two men with the gun and the bow dropped to the ground dead with kunai embedded in the back of their skulls. Suddenly, Minato was just…there. He ducked under the axes of the man before slamming his right palm into the Solarii's chest. The psychotic attacker coughed up blood before he dropped to the ground, joining his friends in death. Minato stood up from his bent attack position and turned to Lara. She felt her breath catch in her throat when she saw the hard, cold look on his face. It was completely different from the expressions that were on his face before this situation happened. Even when he was serious, there was at least some warmth to his expression, but now there was nothing. This was the face of an experienced killer, a true shinobi. The expression only lasted for a few seconds before the warmth in his face resurfaced. Lara thought his eyes were purple for a moment, but it must have been a trick of the light from the flames, since, when he approached her, his eyes were still the pale blue she'd seen him have.

"Are you alright, Lara-chan?" Minato asked, helping her up.

The situation finally caught up with her just then and she started hyperventilating and shaking, "W-what!?"

" .Alright?" Minato asked.

"Y-yes," Lara said.

"Good. We have to keep moving," Minato said, picking her up and pulling her weapons from the dead Russian before grabbing her wrist to pull her after him.

She ripped her hand from his grasp, "Why did you leave? How can I trust you?"

"Look, I'll tell you everything you want to know, but not now. We need to get out of here," Minato said.

"No! I'm not taking one step with you until you tell me why you abandoned me and everyone else."

Minato sighed and looked around to check for any threats before saying, "I didn't abandon you. When we got ambushed, I knew there'd be a fight and with no cover, there was good chance that you would have gotten badly hurt and I wasn't going to allow that. I knew that they'd take you captive so you'd be safe long enough for me to reach you."

"You expect me to believe that you would have problems with those three men when you just killed those ones like they were nothing," Lara asked gesturing to his newest kills.

"No, I wasn't worried about them, but I was about the four men hiding in the shadows with more of those metal weapons."

Lara figured the metal weapons he was talking about were guns, so she again accepted this explanation, "Then, why did it take you so long to get to me?"

"Because there were men with those weapons and bows guarding the area, so I had to take enough of them out before I could come after you, which became more difficult when you managed to escape on your own. You didn't really think that bastard left you without any guards did you?" Minato asked, referring to when the Russian seemingly left Lara alone to give his men orders on hunting down the rest of the crew of the Endurance. When he saw Lara thinking about what he said, Minato moved closer to her, saying, "Look, Lara-chan, I'm sorry that I scared you like that, but you aren't as skilled in stealth as me, so that plan was the best I could think of in the split second that I had. Now, we have to go."

Lara nodded and prepared her bow before following after Minato.

"Um, Minato?" Lara started.

"Yes, Lara-chan?" Minato asked still moving up the path, not letting his attention divert from possible locations of threats.

"How did you manage to find me in all of that?" Lara asked, gesturing to the chaos of the burning temple.

"I never let you out of my sight," Minato said, moving towards her, "And even if I did, I had a way to find you." He gently lifted the left side of her tank top to show where she'd been injured before. He pressed a glowing finger to where he'd healed the wound and when he did, a strange black image appeared on her skin like a tattoo. "Tracking seal," Minato explained, "I put it on you when I healed your injury. It allows me to know where you are as long as you're within a five hundred mile radius."

"Wow, you prepared for everything," Lara said.

"Comes with the territory," Minato said, shrugging.

Moving up the stairway through the burning mountain temple, the pair came upon a corpse. Lara noticed a clip for her handgun by it, so she moved to grab it, but a flaming arrow came flying at her. Minato saw it coming and moved in the way, blocking it with his kunai.

"Shit, he blocked my shot!" one of the Solarii shouted.

Minato pulled Lara down behind some crates, keeping an eye on the attackers slowly advancing on their position.

"Are you alright, Lara-chan?" Minato asked.

"Y-yes," Lara said.

"Good. Is that a long range weapon?" Minato asked, gesturing to her now loaded pistol.

"Yeah," Lara said, the adrenaline keeping her focused on the task at hand.

"Alright, you take out the one on the left and I'll deal with the one on the right," Minato said.

"What? You want me to…to bkill/b him?" Lara asked.

"It's either them or us, Lara-chan," Minato said, "You don't have a choice!"

What shocked Lara the most was not his fierce tone or the harsh truth of his words, but rather his eyes. There was no way she could blame the lighting on it this time. His eyes had definitely changed to purple with concentric circles moving outward from the pupil, similarly to a bull's eye.

Lara didn't have much time to wonder on this because a few seconds after Minato finished speaking, he charged at his assigned target. Lara just acted, not thinking about the implications of what she was doing. She wasn't the best shot since she hadn't had a lot of practice beyond what Roth taught her and they were rarely moving targets, so she had to fire three shots to take down her target with the first missing completely, the second hitting his shoulder, and the third hitting him square in the forehead.

Minato's kill, however, was much more fluid and practiced, due to his obvious experience in combat. He'd rolled his right sleeve up to reveal an arm covered with more of the strange seals. As he ran at his target, he pressed his left hand to one of the seals and suddenly a hilt came out of it. Minato pulled it free to reveal a full-sized nodachi. He used it to block the arrow his opponent fired before bringing the blade down hard on his shoulder, slicing him almost in half.

"We have to keep moving, Lara-chan," Minato said, not giving Lara a moment to think about the implications of what's going on around her.

She only nodded in response. Minato ran to the building ahead with the door locked, but he managed to pry it open with his nodachi. Just as they got inside, more of the Solarii found them and set fire to the building, yelling how they were going to die in there.

"Shit, we've got to find a way out," Lara said, looking around.

"Not a problem, Lara-chan," Minato said, looking at the wall opposite the door they came in. He extended his right arm, holding his palm up as if he were holding something. Suddenly, a ball of swirling energy formed in his hand and running at the wall, he thrust the ball at it, yelling "Rasengan!"

The wall might as well have not even been there, since the ball blew a massive hole in it. The two hurried through the hole coming to a balcony, Lara deciding to ask him about that strange attack later. They followed the path, jumping across a collapsed section. They followed the path, killing more of the Solarii in their way, each one becoming easier for Lara, much to her horror, until they reached a point that they climb wooden planks attached to a cliff face.

After killing another three, Lara and Minato were climbing a rope ladder when Roth called, "Lara, are ya there?"

"Yes!" Lara said, glad that her friend was alright.

"I can see smoke coming from the old ruins. Are you okay?"

"Oh, god, Roth, I'm in trouble. They're killing people," Lara said.

"What? Who?" Roth questioned.

"Men. I-I don't know why," Lara said, "I had to kill some of them. I had no choice."

"That can't have been easy," Roth said.

"It's scary just how easy it was. You've got to warn the others, Roth."

"Don't worry about them right now. You just do what ever it takes to get to me, Lara."

Lara took a deep breath to try and calm herself again, "I'll try," she said, reaching the top of the ladder.

With that, Roth shut off the communication.

"Who was that?" Minato asked.

"Roth. He's a friend. We need to get to him." Lara explained.

"Did he have any suggestions?"

"No. Just to get to him at the top of the mountain," Lara said, blowing hot air into her hands, since now that she was away from the flames, the cold air of the high elevation was beginning to affect her. Minato also noticed that she was blinking extensively, telling him that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off, causing her to get sleepy.

"No, you need rest. We can keep going after you get a some sleep," Minato insisted.

"But Minato, the others need us!" Lara insisted.

"And how much good will you do them if you're falling asleep on your feet?" Minato asked in a calm tone, not letting Lara's understandable and admirable desire to help her friends despite her health get in the way of doing the job efficiently.

Lara could see that there was no changing his mind, so she sighed and accepted. They found a small cave nearby and climbed inside. Minato, using the remains of a nearby abandoned campfire, built a new one inside the cave. He removed his trenchcoat and pulling Lara to sit next to him against the wall opposite the entrance to the cave, he pulled it over the two of them to keep them both warm. Lara, despite her earlier resistance, found herself getting tired. She didn't know why but the combination of Minato's close presence, body heat, and scent, which was thick in his coat, was strangely relaxing. It made her feel…safe.

'Could I be starting to…bfeel/b something for him?' Lara mentally questioned herself, 'No, there's no way. We only just met and we're in the middle of a life-and-death situation! It's…it's probably just the adrenaline and chaos messing with my emotions, making me confused. Yeah, that must be it.'

While Lara was going through this mental turmoil, Minato could sense something was wrong, but figured if she wanted to talk about it, she'd tell him, so he decided to focus on the entrance to ensure none of the Solarii came inside. He had no intention of sleeping for three reasons. First, if they were both sleeping, they'd be vulnerable, second, he was more used to situations like this so he wasn't as tired, and finally, he had the Uzumaki Clan's renowned stamina, add in the fact that it was further enhanced by the Juubi being sealed inside of him. In short, he could probably keep going for another week without sleep, provided he didn't strain himself, which, judging from the level of skill the Solarii has shown, there wasn't much chance of that. Then, why did he have such a foreboding feeling? He couldn't figure that out, he just knew there was something really bad waiting for them out there, something worse than the Solarii. He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind, remembering what his dad always told him: focus on the problem at hand, on your one goal, then you can worry about the future. He was going to help Lara and her friends, then he was going to find a way back home. Wherever that was.

"Minato?" Lara spoke, breaking Minato out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?" Minato grumbled, still staring at the cave entrance.

"I can't sleep. Could you talk to me?"

"About what?"

"I don't know. Could you tell me about your homeland?" she asked, "Just until I fall asleep?"

"Alright," Minato said before he started explaining the ins and outs of the Shinobi lands, like the ranks, the missions, the hidden villages, all of it. Lara was most surprised when she heard that students in the Academy, where they trained the new shinobi, graduated at the age of 13.

When Minato reached the end of his explanation, Lara asked, "So, how did you get sealed in that statue?"

"My dad sealed me in there."

"Why?" Lara asked.

"He was forced to seal the Juubi inside of me after it was released again. It was released before and it almost wiped out the entire Elemental Nations. After he sealed it inside of me, the demon tried to push its way back out, so he had to seal me away in order to give my body time to adapt to its power."

Lara was silent for a few seconds, her head leaning against his shoulder, as she tried to get the thought of a literal demon being sealed inside the man she was cuddling up with. Sure, she'd heard of cultures that believed such things were possible, but those were typically underdeveloped cultures that were still in the hunting and gathering stage of development. With that in mind, something told her that it wasn't just superstition that made Minato think it was true. Maybe it was the seriousness in his voice or maybe it was his abilities. Regardless, Lara found she couldn't automatically dismiss it, despite her desire to do so.

Then, a thought occurred to her, "You said it was released. How did that happen?"

"Strangely, I can't answer that. I think the sealing caused some parts of my memory to develop…blank spots. I remember fighting the Juubi, begging my dad to seal it in me, and the actual sealing. I can't remember how it was released though and it refuses to tell me."

"It…speaks to you?"

"Mostly just death threats and insults," Minato explained nonchalantly.

He waited for her to ask another question for a few seconds, having learned how curious she was, but then he heard quiet breathing coming from Lara. He looked over to see that she'd finally fallen asleep. He smiled at her extremely cute sleeping expression, especially when she snuggled up against him. Despite her innocent looks, she was a lot stronger than she appeared to be at first glance, maybe even more than she herself realized. Sure, physically she'd never come close to being his equal, but in terms of strength of will, she was one of the strongest people he'd ever seen.

Once he was certain that she was in a deep enough sleep, he focused his chakra, forming a cross-shaped handsign, and silently created four shadow clones. Three of them left to take out the nearby Solarii, so the path ahead would be clear when Lara awoke. The fourth used a transformation jutsu to hide near the entrance of the cave after putting a sound-proof seal over the mouth of the cave so those inside couldn't hear the noise going on outside. After all, it wouldn't do for their death shrieks to disturb the sleep that Lara needs so much.

**A/N: There's chapter 2! Please remember to review with any comments, question, concerns, or constructive criticism that you might have.**


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